Jury Hears Taped Statement From Clairton Home Invasion Victim

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — It was another day of grilling on the stand for a victim of a home invasion where a Clairton Police Officer was shot and left paralyzed.

At issue are inconsistencies in her story.

The woman and her boyfriend who was the target of the home invasion described the terror of that night on the stand.

The jury also listened to the woman’s taped statement to police.

“I heard the trigger or a cock back of a gun after that and I was afraid that they were going to shoot him, so I started yelling, ‘I’m up here! I’m up here!’”

There has been much controversy over her identification of Marcus Andrejco as the gunman during this trial and her fiance’s inability to make a positive identification since the men were masked.

In her taped statement to police, she describes in graphic detail the shooting with police.

“He put his hand on the doorknob and he counted down to three to himself. And on three, he kind of opened it a little like kind of cracked it and then swung it open and just opened fire. It was at least five shots …

“And I heard the officer go down and I seen half of his legs that was in the doorway and I heard him struggling to breathe and I heard an officer saying, ‘Come on, come on, get up, get up. You’re okay, you’re okay.’

“And I could hear him gurgling on his blood and I could tell that he was dying.”

Officer Kuzak survived the shooting but now uses a wheelchair. He is expected to testify next week.